Rare alien-looking goblin shark found off Florida coast

Have you ever seen a goblin shark? Well, they're huge and creepy and one fisherman in Florida was pretty surprised to find just that in his shrimping net.

According to WTVJ "It was reeled in by a fisherman in Key West last month, and the fearsome finned creature has razor-sharp teeth and is around 18 feet long."

WTVT reports Carl Moore was on a shrimping expedition from Georgia when he caught the shark, which he said looked "prehistoric."

The 63-year-old told NBC he's caught other sharks before during his 15 years as a shrimping captain, but this one was way different. "I didn't know what it was. ... He had some mean-looking teeth and I didn't want to get caught up in those."

After releasing the shark and returning to shore last week, Moore reported his catch to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and discovered goblin sharks are actually really rare.

In fact, as Discovery notes, there isn't much known about the species - only that they usually linger very deep in the ocean. They also have moveable jaws that eerily expand from their bodies when capturing prey.

Experts say they are usually spotted at a depth of about 5,000 feet in waters near Japan and South Africa.

According to KeysNet, Moore's catch is only the second one ever recorded to be found in the Gulf of Mexico. The first one was found in 2000.

Moore says catching this alien-looking shark was the highlight in his 50 years of shrimp fishing.

Comments

I'll say it again: The bloody mess in the photos is not the shark caught and released. It is one from another area, or the one caught in the Gulf of Mexico 14 years ago. It' common for Internet news agencies to use old stock photos to show how something looks.

Found a dead sturgeon in some place east where they were thought to be fished out and extinct. I think these poor animals are trying to find safety from the BP mess, radiation from Japan or Navy's weapons testing. Scary.